Cricket in the age of Advertising

So the series ended the way it had begun: with South Africa smoking India after a power-packed batting performance and with Dale Steyn leading the bowling charts. However, though South Africa won the start and the end of the tour, the middle belonged solely to India. And there was one thing common in both South African victories on the tour - India were seriously under-strength. In the first Test at Nagpur, India were without Dravid and Laxman and had to use Wridhiman Saha as a make-shift middle order batsman. In Ahmedabad, India were without Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Harabhajan, Zaheer and Nehra. It wouldn't be too far off the mark to call this almost the India 'A' team.

That is why this match would have afforded scant comfort to either team - India or South Africa. South Africa know that though their victory was large, it came against a second string side. For India, the fact that the next rung of players were thrashed so soundly is a thought that should cause worry.

The only people, in fact, that this match helped was the advertisers. If anybody had the patience to keep a count of the actual air-time given to cricket and the airtime given to advertisements, it would have been very interesting to compare the two figures. And it wouldn't be stretching the truth to say that it is conceivable that the advertising airtime would have been a higher figure than the cricketing one.

This is not to denigrate the sponsors who have put in millions for the right to have their products displayed on television. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be enjoying live coverage of the matches in the first place. However, one of the primary purposes of telecasting a match live should be that the viewer actually gets to watch the match. Timer after time, when a wicket fell, when an over was finished, when play was held up for the tiniest amount of time, the broadcasters cut to an ad. Often the commentators were cut-off mid-sentence (Some fans didn't consider this a flaw - especially when Arun Lal or LSRK were cut off mid-sentence).

To anybody in his right mind, this would be a major turn-off for the viewers, and would not really help the advertisers who are trying to sell their products. This in turn would not help the broadcasters, since the advertisers would refuse to strike a deal with the broadcaster the next time, since they know their ads will have an adverse impact on the audience. That is how it should work, at least in theory.

The reality, however, is that every single broadcaster follows the same routine and that the Indian cricket fan is an entity that has so far, never got tired of the game, and will continue to flock in numbers in front of television sets when cricket is being telecast. Which begs the question: Why are such loyal fans given such a raw deal?

We are not even getting into the facilities provided for the viewing spectator at cricket stadiums - that requires a lot of effort since improving infrastructure takes time - but how about the viewers who sit at home in front of their television sets?

I don't know how the BCCI sells the rights for broadcasting cricket matches, but surely it is conceivable that they could add a few clauses that state that the viewers' experience cannot be compromised? That when a batsman is out, the viewers deserve to know just who it is, how he has got out and what his score and the team's is. That before an over starts the scoreboard is shown. That if an errant spectator runs in front of the sight screen, it is not a cue for us to be subjected to an irritatingly smug person selling life insurance to his friend in a car.

All the BCCI has to do is stipulate that the broadcaster - whoever it may be - not cut to ads before the ball is officially dead, or the action in the field is over. But it doesn't do this, because this would automatically mean that broadcasters cannot sell as many ad-spots since there will be lesser time to air the ads. That means the bids submitted to the BCCI will be lower. Lower bids equal lower revenues for the BCCI, which equals lower will to carry out such an action.

Well, at least they haven't started branding sixes, fours and wickets in ODIs yet. For that we have the IPL to look forward to in two weeks time.